1 · Your card payments
Private fees and gap payments taken by card, before any surcharge. Your terminal or bank statement will have this.
A$
How much of that is on credit cards?
The rest is treated as debit, eftpos or prepaid. A rough guess is fine.
All debit40% creditAll credit
Used only to show the break-even amount per payment.
A$
2 · Did you add a card surcharge?
%
Applied to how many card payments?
100%
3 · Your card fees
Look for the "merchant service fee" on your statement, as a percentage of card payments. Leave out terminal rental and other fixed fees: you can add those in step 4.
%
What will your provider charge from now?
Banks' costs fell on 1 October, but providers are not required to pass all of it on.
%
How much of the cut does your provider pass on?
Not sure? Leave it on Half, and see the range below. Your provider can tell you exactly.
4 · Card machines and other fixed fees optional
Your provider charges terminal rental and similar fees on top of the percentage fee. Add them to see what taking cards really costs you. Leave this step blank to skip it.
Count every one: reception, nurse stations, portable or mobile units.
machines
The rental or licence fee for one terminal, from your statement or merchant agreement.
A$
For example gateway, PCI compliance or account-keeping fees. Leave out the percentage fee and any surcharge.
A$
If you have a notice, enter the total extra a month. Leave blank if you have heard nothing. We otherwise treat these fees as unchanged.
A$
5 · How your doctors are paid optional
If your doctors keep a percentage of what they bill (for example 70%), the clinic only keeps the rest of any fee rise. Raising fees by A$1 then brings the clinic in just A$0.30 at 70%. Enter the doctor’s percentage to see the fee rise you would really need. Leave blank if your doctors are salaried or you keep the whole fee.
Check your contractor or service agreement: some agreements work this out after card fees and other costs are taken off, which changes who bears the loss.
%
Your estimate
—
Enter your monthly card payments above to see the estimate.
Surcharge income you no longer collect—
Estimated fee saving—
Net change a month—
Net change a year—
| Share of the fee cut | Fee saving | Net a month |
|---|
The RBA says businesses can still reflect these costs in their overall prices, and can offer a discount to steer patients to another way of paying, but cannot add a surcharge on these cards.
Assumptions and sources
- The ban: from 1 October 2026 businesses can no longer add a surcharge to debit, prepaid or credit payments on the eftpos, Mastercard and Visa networks. The RBA says it does not apply to weekend or public holiday surcharges, or to booking or service fees. If you also accept other schemes such as American Express, check with your provider what applies.
- Fee cut (estimate mode): consumer credit card interchange moves to a hard cap of 0.30%, from a weighted average of about 0.50%, so we assume an average cut of 0.20 percentage points on credit. The debit cap moves from 0.20% to 0.16%, so we assume 0.04. Interchange is only part of what your provider charges, and providers do not have to pass the whole cut on.
- Own rate: if you enter your new rate, we use it directly and ignore the assumptions above. That is the most reliable way to use this tool.
- Where the figures come from: the decision is in the RBA's Review of Merchant Card Payment Costs and Surcharging (search rba.gov.au). The interchange figures above are from secondary reporting of that decision, including ANZ and Eway, and should be checked against the RBA's paper and your provider before you rely on them.
- Card machines and fixed fees (step 4): terminal rental and similar fees are charged by your provider under your merchant agreement. We treat them as unchanged by the surcharge ban unless you enter an increase, and we do not assume your provider will or will not raise them. They only change the “net change” if you enter an increase; otherwise they are used to show the total cost of taking cards and how much of it your surcharge used to recover. Check your agreement and any notice from your provider.
- Later changes: a cap on foreign-card interchange and further fee-transparency rules start on 1 April 2027 and are not included here.
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See all free tools →General information and estimates only. Not financial, tax or legal advice. Check your own fees with your payment provider and your pricing with your accountant. Source: Reserve Bank of Australia. clinic-admin.com · Digital Treasure Pty Ltd · ABN 23 696 816 636